Rental Property Renovations: Cost Effective Upgrades

Maintaining and updating your property as a landlord is critical to competitiveness and attracting potential renters. Furthermore, upgrading a rental home will raise its value and provide a fantastic passive income potential! Everything from a fresh coat of paint to new kitchen countertops.

Whole house renovations can be rather costly – even a complete makeover of just one part of a home could be beyond a homeowner’s budget. However, for investment homes, seemingly minor improvements can frequently significantly impact the appearance and feel of a property, attracting high-quality renters and higher rental rates. Here are some cost-effective rental property renovations you can make to boost the value of your rental property.

Rental Property Renovations: Cost-Effective Upgrades

Painting

Though painting an entire apartment can be expensive, especially if professional painters are hired, changing the paint to just a few parts of a property can make it much more beautiful. Homes with bedrooms painted in various bright hues are often unappealing to renters, who prefer to personalize the space.

However, calming neutral hues are popular these days – grays, or even basic whites and creams, can give a sense of homogeneity throughout the home and allow renters to design as they wish without being restricted by vivid green walls.

Though the walls are the most prominent part of the house, painting the baseboards & door frames will help make the house look refreshed and clean. Painting an accent wall (remember, neutral) or whitewashing a brick fireplace are two more simple paint enhancements.

Exterior upgrades

Prospective renters’ first impressions of a home are often formed within a few moments of seeing it from the exterior. So, modest landscaping could make a significant impact in making your house more appealing. Ensure the lawn is maintained, the gutters are clean, and any overgrown plants or branches are removed. You can plant gorgeous shrubs or flowers around your property and bring new mulch.

Exterior improvements aren’t restricted to the grass. Consider power cleaning or refinishing an old, weathered patio with chipping paint on your property. Power washing can also make a significant difference in how tenants perceive the home – if an owner has spent the effort to clean the home’s outside and driveway, chances are they’ve also maintained the interior.

Home maintenance jobs can be time demanding, but they do not always have to be costly. Making minor upgrades to the home’s value and charm can enhance your rental price and attract high-quality tenants.

Contact our team today if you own a property investment and want to learn more about today’s trendy amenities and renovations. Alternatively, if you’re going to buy investment homes, we can guide you through the steps and help you choose a home that won’t require dozens of costly modifications and repairs.

Flooring

Installing new flooring can freshen the appearance of a home by making it feel and appear cleaner. Even though numerous low-cost flooring options are available these days, re-flooring a complete house can be costly.

However, if certain portions of the home have faded, dirty carpet, for instance, changing the flooring in such areas will raise the home’s perceived value. However, if you want to keep the cost of new flooring as low as possible, it will have to be a do-it-yourself project.

A luxury vinyl plank, which is not your grandmother’s vinyl, is one of today’s most popular flooring options. These floorings are available in various colors and are renowned as highly durable and water-resistant.

If you decide to tackle a flooring job, be sure you’re prepared to put in the time and work required and get familiar with materials and construction methods – the lousy installation will cost you more in the long run. Websites like YouTube and several big box home improvement stores feature instructional videos on almost everything and could be an excellent place to start.

Light fixtures

The appropriate lighting can radically transform the atmosphere of a room, making it feel either cold and corporate or warm and inviting. Simple light fixture adjustments can instantly update the look of a room, and these days, low-cost lights can be obtained at home improvement retailers or even on Amazon. Is there a ceiling fan in the house? If not, consider adding some to the bedrooms and main living space.

Ceiling fans are famous among tenants since they make the home appear more pleasant. If you’ve done lighting installs previously, you know to switch off the source of electricity in the room where you’re working. If you’ve never made such an improvement before, hiring a local electrician for a couple of hours to install everything may be your best bet correctly.

Add bathroom storage

It seems to be the house’s one room in which there is still insufficient storage space, a feature that tenants greatly covet. To make the most of the area in a little bathroom, landlords can quickly and simply install extra storage space.

Towels and robes can be hung on the wall using hooks or a rack, whatever option you like. If the bathroom doesn’t already have a shelf, you should install one either over the toilet or on the back of the door to store linens and other objects in the bathroom. To further expand storage space, build a bathroom cabinet above the sink.

Kitchen cabinets

Is your investment home equipped with vintage brown drawers and cabinets that appear to have been installed in 1980? It’s surprising what a fresh coat of paint, as well as some new hardware, can do for the appearance of a kitchen. Again, neutral is ideal for repainting kitchen cabinets. It’s also a good idea to go to your local paint store to ensure you get the right items.

It’s also a good idea to go to your local paint store to ensure you get the right items. Though washing, sanding, priming, and applying numerous coats of paint can take some time, it is a relatively inexpensive update that will make a significant difference.

Add a backsplash

This is yet another feature that can elevate the look and feel of a kitchen. For a low-budget renovation, expensive, elaborate tiles might be out of the picture. Still, subway tiles not only enrich the area but will also give your walls an additional layer of security. Though backsplashes are usually built over kitchen sinks, they can also be positioned behind stoves.

Roof

When a roof reaches the age of fifteen years, it’s time to think about replacing it. In extreme weather, neglecting the top might result in significant damage. Who wants to wake up in the middle of the night to find out that there is a leakage in the roof that is causing damage to the inside of your home?

Landlords should request a roofing inspector to assess the roof regularly and make plans to replace it if necessary. A beautiful roof looks nice and protects the property beneath it.

Why Should you Upgrade the Rental Property?

Let us start with the obvious: higher rent. When you start making changes to raise property value, you also allow yourself to argue for a rent rise.

People are eager to pay more for more excellent products, such as newer equipment, more excellent floors, and fixtures. Other things to consider when remodeling your rental:

• Your property will stand out: Whenever you improve your property, you demonstrate to potential renters that you worry enough to make it appealing to them. Renovate to make the property as appealing to potential tenants as feasible
• Possible improvements in energy efficiency: You can help lower utility costs by installing new appliances, replacing the windows, or adjusting the thermostat. As a result, if you pay the utilities for the home, this is a significant benefit to you
• Overall property worth increase: Improving the general aspects of the rental property will raise its potential resale value
• Significant tax deductions: A large portion of your expenses could be deductible from the property’s taxable income
• Lower ongoing expenses: Improve your rental home to reduce utility bills, which some tenants may appreciate, as well as costly ongoing maintenance. Energy-saving light bulbs and water-saving toilets may be more expensive at first, but they will save you money in the long run
• Increase renter satisfaction: Happy tenants are more likely to stay, and long-term renters require smaller costly vacancies. Renovate the rental property to attract new tenants faster and keep existing residents under contract for a more extended period

Conclusion

That’s all there is to it! There are numerous low-cost strategies to boost the value of your property in the short and long term. It is now up to you to choose what you will do. This list may seem intimidating, but remember that you are not required to accomplish everything. Begin with simple tasks like replacing doorknobs or cabinet handles, then progress to more extensive work like painting and fencing.

Your rental property is just an investment, but money must be spent to make money. You’ll need to maintain putting money into your rental throughout its life. However, the idea is to spend less money while earning more money.